Wednesday, August 19, 2015

5 More Reasons To Lose Sleep

There is two sides to a story and the good side of this piece is the fact that it should not cause apnea which is life threatening. The bad news is that stress and disturbances can cause a sleep disorder. Lately, the evening news disrupted our supper, causing indigestion. It led to difficulty in sleeping due to Greece, Shanghai market, Ukraine, Syria and missing planes. Then, nothing like the center of a hurricane. We caught some good zee's. In fact, we got desert. Moody's upgraded Greece to triple C(CCC). Hey, don't laugh. US infrastructure is rated "D+."
Hey, we're all sick of it and I hate to add to the disharmony, but I become aware of five reasons that can lead to insomnia, although the song had more rhythm, "I was tossing and turning all night..."
1) US banks that were too big too fail back in 2008 are now 45% larger. The expression needs an update because the root of the baking industry problem was derivatives. Today, the so-called insurance vehicle is $100 billion bigger than during the financial crisis.
2) The above problem gets compounded(pun intended)due to the danger that the FDIC insurance fund does not have enough $ to cover any major default. In fact, the fund only has enough dough for 1.01% of bank money. Keep in mind that our government lost control of our currency and no one knows the exact amount held outside our border. We do know that it is almost 50% which is astounding and foreigners hold more $100 dollar bills than we do. Unbelievable but true!
3) The danger that a desperate Congress looking for money to spend will impose new regulations like capital controls. In fact, they already have controls on the books. Any banking transaction of $5K is reported and $10K always gets a closer look. There is also the fear that social security will be amended to allow privatization or some form of it. This could lead to apnea! By the way the government has already taken this money and pension money too when they needed it during the debt ceiling crisis.
4) According to Global Finance and their annual list of the 50 safest banks in the world, only five US companies made it and the leader of this pack came in at #39. Even I don't believe this one.
5) For the first time more US businesses went out of business than our free enterprise opened new businesses. Not only are we losing our social mobility, but we are losing free enterprise and without it, there can be no American dream as envisioned by our Founding Fathers.
I guess if you want to see something, your mind will help you find it. However, if your subconscious places you in dreams that give you a nightmare, I offer this one last suggestion. Turn the pillar over. The cool side will allow you to return to an island paradise with eye candy all about.